Library Faculty Meeting Minutes

Please see also the
pdf full version with
Student Learning Outcomes Assessment slides.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
3:00 - 4:30 pm
GSLIS Room 126

Paula Kaufman, presiding

1. Approval of faculty meeting minutes of October 24, 2007

Minutes were approved as submitted with a motion by Becky Smith.

2. Introductions and University Librarian's report (Paula Kaufman)

No introduction of new employees.

Paula attended the Deans Meeting. They are asking for nominations for honorary degrees
early in the spring semester. Give your nominations to the Executive Committee.

Vice Chancellor for Research Charles Zukoski said the amount of money for start-ups has a
structural debt. The only research money available will be for TOPS candidates.
Indirect cost recovery rate has increased from 53 % to 55%. This is in line with our
public university peers. The question is, do we want to negotiate for raising the rate or
stay at the current rate? The increase in the rate will be used to defray utility
expenses.

FY09 budget outlook-There was no information concerning the rescission money we have set
aside. They performed an analysis of university revenue versus expenditures for 2009.
We have over 14,000 salaried staff members at UIUC. New revenue that goes to units and
revenue that stays central (utilities, deferred maintenance, Medicare, new lease costs) these are
the total expenditures. There will be a 3 percent assessment next year. This year we
were fortunate to negotiate for removing our collections budget from the tax. The
Provost stated the university is too big for the expenditures we have, we need to stop spending
unnecessarily.

The new campus profile has a standard view and strategic view option with 10 years of
data. Campus units can set it up to look at their growth. Jo Kibbee says Central
Reference has a link to this data,
Division of Management Information: 2007-2008 Campus Profile, through the link "UIUC
Campus Profile":

The Executive Committee met three times since the last faculty meeting on
October24. This report provides a summary of discussions and actions since
then. A full list of meetings and minutes for each meeting are available through the EC
website at:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/committee/exec/.

At our November 5 meeting, we provided advice to the University Librarian concerning the new
service models proposals. Subsequent to the meeting, we reviewed a draft of the interim
report and offered advice concerning potential revisions. We continued discussions concerning
the report at the November 12 and 26 meetings.

Also at the November 5 meeting, we discussed a personnel issue and reviewed the proposed GA
evaluation policy. The policy was subsequently underwent minor revisions based on the
committee's advice. We discussed issues related to sabbatical policy coverage, and I have
been charged with developing the first draft of a policy for review at an upcoming meeting.
We discussed a suggestion that the Library consider using so-called "Clinical Faculty" but
recommended that the issue not be pursued.

In response to a question from a Library faculty member, we discussed whether it is possible to
serve a nine-month appointment. It is possible under Academic Human Resources policies, but
service must take place during the academic year. We do not think a formal library policy is
necessary. Any potential appointments should be negotiated on a case-by-case basis with the
University Librarian, acting with the advice of EC. The granting of such appointments must be
sensitive to Library staffing needs.

At our November 12 meeting, we briefly discussed issues related to the budget. Paula
attended a Provost's "Resource Summit." No decision on the release of money held in
rescission is likely until January or February.

The committee received a very thorough and useful report from Lisa Hinchliffe and the faculty of
the Undergraduate Library. We discussed the report briefly and made some suggestions to Paula
regarding potential areas to be addressed in next year's report. The Committee feels it is
important for UGL to work with CITES to offer services together, as students are often confused
about who to contact with questions or problems.

Also at the November 12 meeting, we discussed a policy regarding research time. Following
the last faculty meeting, we discovered that I had erroneously reported that EC approved the policy
over the summer. In fact, the final changes to the policy had not been made. We made
some additional suggestions. An EC member revised the policy, and it was approved, pending
some typographical changes, at our November 26 meeting.

We were notified that the Budget Group has received information and requests from units in
respect of their perceived GA requirements for FY09. Each member of the budget group will evaluate
the requests using a rubric After the Budget Group prepares a recommendation concerning
appointments, it will be reviewed by EC and we will provide advice to the University Librarian.

We also reviewed a report on Entrepreneurial Programs in the Library, but did not make a formal
recommendation for action at this time, although we did suggest that a business plan be prepared
for LibPrint.

At our November 26 meeting, we discussed the "Library Services in the 21
st Century" document. We discussed a request for a tenure rollback but did not
make a recommendation pending the submission of additional documentation. We discussed
a request to form a standing "Scholarly Communications Committee" and provided recommendations
concerning the scope and composition of the committee. The charge will be revised and
reviewed further at an upcoming meeting.

Respectfully Submitted,

Chris Prom

Vice-chair, Executive Committee

Jo Kibbee asked about the research leave statement. Some may seek 1-3 weeks to concentrate
on something. However, beyond this, the University Librarian needs to know about it and
approve the request. Lisa Hinchliffe asked about the GA exit interview process.
Are they due in December, just a few days away? It is still on the Executive Committee
agenda, so the current policy still stands.

Alvan is the chair of the RPC and introduced the committee: Carissa Holler, Jing Liao,
Marek Sroka, Jennifer Teper, and Scott Walter,
ex officio. Alvan encouraged faculty to look into applying for funding from the
committee, which would like to assist research in a number of ways: provide advice concerning
the development of research projects and ideas; research travel; graduate assistant wages; fees;
photocopy cards are available simply by emailing Alvan with your project idea; survey design; data
analysis; translation services; oral history interviews; laptop checkout and other equipment;
editing services; photographic services; etc. The committee cannot pay for: prolonged
research; additions to the collection; library administrative work; graduate assistants.
There is a short form of less than 500 words to apply for grant money, and also a long form.
The turn around is rather quick, usually within a week and sometimes even the same day.

They will have a forum to talk about this. There will be a brownbag on the last Wednesday
in January to talk about ongoing faculty research.

Marc Snir started this about 2 years ago. He wrote a report to the Chancellor and
Provost. He gave the Wikipedia definition of informatics: "studies the structure,
behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process and communicate
information." It includes everything that has to do with computers and information:
computer science; information science; and human science. The goal of the Illinois
Informatics Initiative is to accelerate change within existings units, preparing the university for
the new information era. Universities have not figured out yet how to use information.
The staff of the I
3 tries to bring different units together and figure out how e can use
information. There is an ongoing information revolution. He estimates that there are
300 faculty which may have some part in informatics. There is a push towards
experimentation. This unit is unique on this campus. There is no faculty, it does
conduct research activities and tries to motivate interesting research. The ideal is to
create a virtual research community. Education outreach a virtual organization that requires
a new organizational model. There is an information minor in education consisting of 6
courses. There are about 100 different courses around campus with informatics
components. There is a bioinformatics masters degree in GSLIS and also a proposed doctoral
program.

This is truly a bottom up process. The university does not have the money to create a new
department. The focus is on changing the culture of existing units.

Encourage use of informatics in education. "Faculty help thyself," seeks to encourage
research projects that develop, deploy and evaluate information technology on campus.
Encourage better use of social networking technology on campus (community of communities) and
facilitate tool sharing. Currently, students are the ones using social networking, the
faculty use it very little. Various units around campus are developing software to assist in
their classes.

How does informatics relate to information literacy? People create, process,
communciate and destroy information. Information literacy seems too narrow a concept.
He feels the Scholarly Commons and IDEALS are a perfect fit for the grand vision of the Illinois
Informatics Initiative. How do we work together to move from an island of activity model to a
strong interaction between members of the campus informatics community? The Library is a physical
anchor to our digital campus. JoAnn Jacoby felt the library can have a role as a virtual
anchor, to assist in connecting these islands together. The scholar and the student come
together in the library. 24 hour librarian-online, the Library is the place where pieces of
the campus flow together. I
3 just pushes ideas, I
3 itself is not a long term repository. Scott Walter stated that the library is
one of the few departments which touch faculty in every department on campus. Discussed the
idea with ATLAS for the library to serve as a resource where others can find, then collaborate with
ATLAS, which provides data resources. Lisa Hinchliffe stateed the definition of literacy is
changing. Libraries are increasingly using social networking and mobile informatics.
Becky Smith mentioned that libraries show students how to put ideas to work. Lisa Hinchliffe
stated the library has the opportunity to serve as laboratory for information. The library
can be the laboratory where research is being carried out.